


blacker than a moonless night

by xtreme-icecream (kamote)



Category: Love Live! Sunshine!!
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-09
Updated: 2017-01-09
Packaged: 2018-09-16 00:19:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,056
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9265487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kamote/pseuds/xtreme-icecream
Summary: Yoshiko gives Hanamaru a little coffee and pays the price.





	

The fragrance flowing out of Yoshiko’s cup catches Hanamaru’s notice within seconds. “Coffee?”

“Yeah,” Yoshiko says, shrugging one shoulder. “Turns out Mari’s got a lot of good blends downstairs, not that it surprises me. I used the simplest, cheapest-looking one, but it’s still from Brazil, so…” She trails off and shrugs again before taking a sip of Mari’s ‘cheap Brazilian blend’. It’s bland and underwhelming for something that came from a gold foil-covered can with nutrition facts printed in four different languages, but Yoshiko chalks it up to her sloppy, half-awake brewery. She’s too tired to feel guilty about wasting those grinds, too.

Across from her, though, sitting on her heels in the middle of folding futon comforters, Hanamaru’s looking at her with bright gold puppy eyes that are doing a better job of rousing her than her thousand-yen sepia sludge. “That’s so mature, Yoshiko-chan!” she says. “But don’t people drink that in the morning?”

There’s the question. Yoshiko can’t possibly tell her that her late night coffee is a remnant of her old preparations for midnight demon summoning, and that skipping on it would give her a withdrawal headache that she does _not_ want to deal with. Good thing ad-libbing is one of her hundred talents.

“Isn’t it obvious?” She holds the mug in front of her proudly. “Blacker than a moonless night, hotter and more bitter than Hell itself… Is it not only fitting that such an infernal concoction be celebrated by the crossing of the moon through its zenith?”

Ad-libbing is not one of her talents. She wants to shove her words in her coffee and chug it. Shut _up,_ Yohane.

“Sounds perfect!” Hanamaru says.

Nice one, Yohane.

“You think so?” Yoshiko says. “Wanna try some? I added creamers and cinnamon to make it more palatable for mortalkind.”

Eagerness flashes over Hanamaru’s eyes, but then she stops and glances at the clock. “Uh, I dunno if I should… It’s 10:30 and I’ve never tried coffee before. Might make me jumpy.”

“Not an issue.” Yoshiko gingerly steps to the edges of the futons and holds the mug out. “Not like you have to drink half the mug. Sample the flavor with a few tiny sips.”

Hanamaru still looks a little reluctant, but she’s crawling to Yoshiko anyway. “What if that’s all it takes to make me stay up all night?” she says, eyeing the mug.

“Doubt it,” Yoshiko says. “If it does happen, though, I’ll take the fall, so to speak. A fallen angel has to be responsible for the little demons she lures into the snares of vice and wickedness, after all.”

Hanamaru hums. “Well, I guess the snares of vice and wickedness aren’t that bad if you’re around. Give it here!”

“Whoa, careful, it’s hot.”

They fumble their fingers around while trying to get the mug into Hanamaru’s grip, and when she has it, Yoshiko suddenly becomes really conscious of her sloppy, half-awake brewery. She knows Hanamaru wouldn’t be able to tell a 3-in-1 from a cortado, but her weak little heart is thumping whole marches in her chest anyway.

Hanamaru takes a sip.

“Whoa, Yoshiko-chan, this really is good!”

Yoshiko thinks her grin might look a little stupid right now.

* * *

 The memory has had a good three or so hours to settle in Yoshiko’s mind, but she thinks now it might be sliding a little more into ‘regret’ territory.

Hanamaru tugs the bottom of her shirt for the sixth time that night. Her speech is slow and quiet, but it completely lacks any hint of a drowsy rasp. “Hey, Yoshiko-chan. Are you awake?”

“Yeah?” Yoshiko mumbles into her pillow. She never slept. She also can’t keep her eyes open anymore. She also can’t bring herself to just ignore Hanamaru, either.

“Do you… Do you think Dia-san heard me when I accidentally called her ‘mom’ the other week?” Hanamaru asks.

“No way… You were too far for her to hear.”

“I don’t think I was. Dia-san has better hearing than we give her credit for. Remember the aquarium penguin incident?”

“Mari was loud on purpose that time.”

“Maybe… Yeah…”

A pause. It won’t last.

“Oh, wait, if Dia-san did hear me, she’d be bad at hiding it, right? The first time she heard you call her ‘mom’ she wouldn’t—“

Now Yoshiko makes an effort to look at her. “Zuramaru?”

“Ah, yeah, Yoshiko-chan?”

“It’s one in the morning. Shouldn’t you try to go to sleep?”

Hanamaru shrinks back and pulls her blanket up a little higher. “M-Maybe… But I can’t. How come the coffee isn’t doing this to you, Yoshiko-chan?”

“Used to it,” Yoshiko said. “But you can’t sleep?”

“Yeah,” Hanamaru said. “What do I do? I don’t want to be late for morning practice tomorrow. Dia-san might get mad.”

“After what happened this summer, she’s the last person who should get mad at you for that.” But Hanamaru is still genuinely distressed. Yoshiko’s not very good at thinking right now, but she did say she’d be responsible for any coffee-related repercussions the drink would have on Hanamaru’s system. What’s a solution…

“Zuramaru, do me a favor.”

“I’ll be quiet.”

“No, not that.” Yoshiko nudges Hanamaru’s shoulder. “Turn around.”

Hanamaru pouts and hides further into her blanket, which sends needles into Yoshiko’s chest. “That’s even more cruel, Yoshiko-chan.”

“It’s not like thaaat,” Yoshiko says, wiggling back and forth. “I promise I’m trying to help.”

“Okay.”

A small fabric-shuffling noise later, Hanamaru’s back is to Yoshiko, and Yoshiko squirms over to snugly wrap her arms around Hanamaru’s soft waist. Hanamaru gasps a little.

“What?” Yoshiko asks.

“Are these the snares of vice and wickedness you were talking about?” Hanamaru asks over a chuckle.

“Suuure are, Zuramaru. Like ‘em?”

Hanamaru inches back into Yoshiko. “Yeah, think so.”

“Good, ‘cause now you have to keep still until you fall asleep.”

“I’unno, I think your arm might fall asleep before I–”

Yoshiko squeezes, which seems to tickle Hanamaru a little. “Sleeeep.”

“Zura! Okay I’m going to sleep.”

“Sleeeep…”

“Sleeeep, zura…”

Within seconds, Yoshiko can feel Hanamaru’s breathing slow to a soporific calm. When she tests Hanamaru with another squeeze and she doesn’t react, Yoshiko considers Hanamaru sound asleep and her job done.

Not really fair, Yoshiko thinks, that Hanamaru falls asleep before she does anyway, but she totally had it coming, and she doesn’t really mind.

**Author's Note:**

> for the record, my take of the continuities flip-flopping yoshiko's opinion of coffee around is that she drinks coffee but hates it black BUT will drink it black when she needs to keep her hellish image up
> 
> also, not to (make yoshiko) rip off ace attorney but godot's coffee line was perfect for her. sue me, armando


End file.
